Amazon.com Inc. is looking to widen its lead in the smart-speaker market with a new service that will let consumers personalize the capabilities of their Alexa devices.

The move comes as companies such as Google LLC and Apple Inc. continue to try to chip away at Alexa’s lead with a variety of their own devices. Smart speakers are seen by some as both an opportunity for more engagement with consumers and a potential threat to existing businesses such as Google’s massive search service and Apple’s iPhone franchise.

Launched this morning, Alexa Blueprints offers a set of more than 20 templates that make it possible to build custom extensions, or Skills, for the virtual assistant without any coding. The templates are organized into four categories: Storyteller, Learning & Knowledge, Fun & Games and At Home.

The Skills in the catalog cover many areas. One template, Houseguest, enables users to create an interactive voice guide of their homes for visitors. Alexa can be programmed to answer questions such as “how to turn on the TV” and provide instructions for using various appliances. Another blueprint called Trivia provides the ability to create a multiple-choice trivia game.

According to Amazon, creating a personalizing Skill only requires users to populate a template with their custom content. They may not even have to do that in some cases, since the blueprints come with sample content that the company says may be used as-is.

Some of the blueprints also contain unique personalization options specific to a certain activity. The Trivia template, for example, provides the ability to have Alexa play sound effects such as applause when a player answers a question correctly.

Amazon has set up a web-based app store of sorts where users can browse and customize the blueprints. In all likelihood, the company will expand the catalog over time to reach more consumers who own an Alexa-powered device. 

Amazon has already been encouraging outside developers to create Skills for the virtual assistant. The company offers an Alexa Skills Kit that contains tools, documentation and other resources designed to reduce the amount of work involved in the development process. Its efforts are clearly paying off: There are currently more than 30,000 Skills available for Alexa.

On top of extending its capabilities, Amazon has also been working to expand the number of devices on which the virtual assistant can be found. Earlier this year, the company struck deals with HP Inc., Lenovo Group Ltd. and several other major computer makers to include Alexa in their machines.

Image: Amazon